According to this article by the well-meaning Dr. JJ Levenstein, to keep your kids healthy you just need to avoid indoor areas, cover mouths and wash hands, surround yourself with healthy people, disinfect surfaces and keep sick kids at home.

Wow. OK,  that list is virually impossible to follow. Avoid indoor areas? I'm guessing JJ lives closer to the equator than I do, and possibly does not send kids to the germ-incubator called school, and I would love to disinfect all the surfaces that my kids touch but I am too busy doing laundry and cooking and cruising online, and yes, I try and keep my sick kids at home but they have siblings and those siblings are not on quarantine everytime someone gets sick (no one would ever leave the house) and I might go crazy. So, my kids are going to get sick, and your kids are going to get sick. And once in a while, you get to enjoy having a sick day because it means you get to lie around on the couch and watch movies and drink hot lemon and honey. And other times, you are up all night cleaning up vomit and then spend the whole day -- cleaning up vomit. And sometimes it is a mixture of the two.

Sometimes it is hard to find activities that our whole family can enjoy. There aren't many movies that appeal to a nine, six and four year old; and they like different exhibits at the museum and science centre. Skating hasn't been a big hit since Aaron broke his arm on the rink and while we do all love to ski and snowboard, it's hard to do in downtown Toronto.

But tobogganing, everyone loves tobogganing. It would be hard for a cranky preschooler not to crack a smile while sitting on her brother's lap and shooting down a hill. Even us parents find ourselves in hysterics while watching, and even more when hitting a  hard landing.

I kow you are languidly hanging out at home and your kids are in their PJs playing with new toys. (Or at least in my fantasy that is how life is going) And the last thing you want to do is think about school starting and the morning routine. But that is exactly why you have to think about it now, because the best time to talk about new routines is before you have to do it, instead of when you are in the middle of it.

So, how did it go last term? Were you out the door, on time and everyone had all their stuff? If so, stop reading and move on to another post. If there were bumps and maybe some squabbles, some late slips and some forgotten lunches and most of all if there was GUILT (on your part the kids don't really care) then it is time to re-asses.

Our mornings went pretty well at first, especially considering we are dropping off at two different schools and have three different start times. I say at first, because in the last six weeks of the term my son Aaron got 14 late slips. Yes, 14 and I am pretty sure they are all my fault because when my anal husband drives him he is always on time.

Holidays are great, but they are also hard. It feels sometimes like everyone's behaviour is under a microscope. And once that behaviour is being studied -- watch out that's when the labels get applied and when parenting anxieties can grow.

At a low point on our holiday at a relative's cottage last summer I grabbed a slightly browned copy of Liberated Parents, Liberated Children: Your Guide to a Happier Family by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish off the shelves. I knew the authors from their other, better known books, How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & LIsten So Kids Will Talk and also Siblings Without Rivalry. Their parenting style is rooted in a deep respect for the kids and for themselves. And while the language (and the title) is outdated the following excerpt struck a chord with me.

Check it out, it is worth a read.

Thanks to Chanukah being earlier than Christmas this year, we have a load of gifts littering the house. And it’s not that fun. Since this is an upcoming event in most people’s homes, let me remind you that the giving of gifts is great, the receiving of them is wonderful and the ridiculous amount of toy clutter that ensues is horrifying.

But what happens when I tentatively suggest that perhaps the ignored-Playmobil castle that is chewing up a large piece of real estate in son number one’s room be relocated to the basement so everyone can enjoy? Incredulous yelling. As if son number one would move it to a general area so that son number two could play with it! How could I be so ridiculous? It doesn’t matter that the Lego is now blocking any pathway to the bed or door (or most importantly laundry hamper) and some freed up space would benefit everyone. My response, is obviously: “How could he be so selfish?”

Son number two gets his most-desired Ben 10 creature maker, and when his siblings ask to play he has no less than a “hairy conniption” and runs into his room with all his new toys.

The real gift of the holidays is the constant reminder that you are bringing up a bunch of selfish, toy-hoarding unappreciative kids. Feels great!

So I called Alyson Schafer and asked her:

When my eldest son was two, he loved Thomas the Tank Engine, we had a Thomas-themed birthday party which has provided us with hours of play for each kid. And as much I loved the toy, I never felt very good about the show, there is a puritanical bent to the series that I could never embrace.For instance, whenever anyone makes a mistake they get coal dumped on them, and the highest praise that is heaped on a hard-working train? They are a very useful engine.

It just all smacks of conservatism, and I am sure the Rev. Awdry who penned the original Thomas would be quite happy with that. And I am not alone in my feelings, Shauna Wilton, a researcher at the University of Alberta studied 23 episodes of the show and found that that it definitely has a "conservative political ideology" that punishes individual action. And more concerning, says Wilton is the lack of central female characters.

If you walk into my son Aaron’s room you will be confronted by the full array of Star Wars clone armies pointing at your feet. The ships are lined up against the wall and their enemies are facing them with all the weaponry that George Lucas could think of.

And each and every piece is Lego, painstakingly put together following the precise directions that can drag on for 20 pages or so.

Directions for Lego? If you are wondering what I am talking about then you have not been in contact with any boy older than 5 in a long time. Lego has changed, it’s not just a bucket of bricks that you fashion into guns and towers anymore, it is all about exact instructions and Hollywood replicas.

Every parent and grandparent who is currently scouring the shelves of the toy store looking for the limited edition Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser™Item #: 8039 has asked themselves: what happened to the Lego I remember?

There was a lot of talk this summer about getting a dog. This is similar to the conversations about one year ago about having an other child. They all end with, "I think it works better when Mummy is an Alpha Dog". But I am not an alpha dog so we are staying with three children, but the dog is still in discussion.

Part of my husband's fascination with getting a puppy is his admiration for Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer. He can sit and watch that show for hours. He is completely mesmerized by Cesar's ability to turn around dogs in such a short time. But he also loves the fact that Cesar is a complete Zen Master of his craft.

Cesar Millan is all about showing who is boss, and showing the dogs how to be part of a pack. As a parent I would also like my kids to sit when told and to stop fighting with a mere "SHHHT" like Cesar's dogs do.

So naturally, some people are starting to wonder if the Dog Whisperer techniques could also be Kid Whisperer strategies.The New York Timeshad a an article on parents and child therapists taking a page out of Millan's book and applying it to child rearing. And the conversation continued into the motherlode blog. (In fact The Times loves Cesar this is an articlefrom the Business section which supplies one of my favourite quotes: humans are the only animals who will follow unstable pack leaders.")

Even one of my completely crunchy friends has a crush on Cesar, she swears she is starting to use some of his techniques at home on her kids, and they work. There is something nice admitting that you are the Pack Leader, she says.

It would be nice to have my kids respond as well as Cesar's dogs. But I think it might take more than wise words from the Dog Whisperer and some good editing. Because in fact, I think that Cesar is slightly more punitive than I think is beneficial. And a dog trainer I spoke to said that his name come up all the time at conferences, but the talk about him isn't always positive.

Nonetheless, I would love to be more like Cesar, he has that "calm, assertive energy", and inner strength; he seems completely in control of every situation, no matter how risky, and he makes it look so damm easy!

 Do you think Cesar could be a People Whisperer? Will you take parenting tips from a dog trainer?

I maybe a little late with this topic, but it has been on my mind for a while. Teacher Gifts. Twice a year, the schoolyard is abuzz with money changing hands and gift bags being carted in and out.

I don't know what it's like at your school, but at ours it generally goes like this: a super-organized parent decides on an amount, begs for money, gets a card and wrangles all the kids to sign the card, and then goes out and picks out a gift card for large chain-like bookstore.

When my editor asked if I had any "family resolutions" for the new year I didn't really have any idea what she was talking about. I resolve to get through each day with my dignity intact but that doesn't always work out. So casting about a year-long resolution seems a bit beyond my capacity. And the truth is for a list on how to make your family better and healthier, you can't beat this article (though I wouldn't call it resolutions you can stick to, I might call it resolutions you will want to stick to, but will fail from time to time)

It did get me thinking and I asked a few friends about what we could resolve to be better in the next year and this is what we came up with, in no particular order.